Autev EV Charging Robot
Internship
Electric vehicles are growing in popularity, but charging infrastructure can’t keep up. Autev addresses this with autonomous, cart-sized robots that drive to parked cars and charge them using a robotic arm.
I joined the team in late 2024 as the sole designer, leading industrial, branding, and user experience design for the robot. I got the chance to collaborate directly with engineers, gaining valuable insight into the realities of product development and the inner workings of startup businesses.
Team
Sole Designer; Electrical and Mechanical Engineers, Business Development
Timeline
September 2024 - November 2025 (ongoing)
Tools
Rhino, Autodesk Alias, SolidWorks, Keyshot, Sketching
001
The Brief
Autev is an early stage startup founded by University of Washington alumni. They are dedicated to providing corporate partners with a solution to their parking lot charger infrastructure shortages.
The Autev robot is a fully autonomous grocery-cart sized vehicle that holds a large-capacity 10 kWh lithium ion battery and is equipped with a 5-axis articulating robotic arm.
Autev has won a variety of different startup and pitch competitions, including funding to be housed in the University of Washington CoMotion Hardware Incubator.
002
How Autev Works
I created this storyboard for an investor presentation with Seattle-Tacoma airport, the Seattle metropolitan area’s largest airport.
It features an earlier iteration of Autev’s form, but the user flow remains the same.
003
Engineering Considerations
Autev uses an off-the-shelf robotic arm (the uFactory xArm 5), and uses a battery unit pre-developed by a seperate manufacturer. In addition, the robot’s design had some structural bracing and frame dimension constraints. Autev also uses a sensor array developed by Intel (the Intel RealSense array) for computer vision guided navigation. The final form of the vehicle had to be adapted to fit within the guidelines for sensor placement and redundancy outlined by the engineers.
I worked within these constraints to try and deliver a joyful, sophisticated form; one that felt at home next to the sleek electric cars it was charging.
004
Design Considerations
Autev is a novel product, a large, boxy, and slightly monolithic form introduced into the lives of users and nonusers alike. As such, it was important to imbue it with a friendly, bubbly, and nonthreatening visual language. However, it should also look at home in a Tesla showroom or parked next to a Rivian. It was important to use automotive-level surface quality, soft transitions, and have incredible attention to detail at every level.
friendly + approachable + elegant + sophisticated + futuristic
005
Ideation
I experimented with many different formal ideas, including covering the wheels and having a unified (no top and bottom division) form.
Every step of the ideation process was done hand in hand with engineers and business development, ensuring the product fit the client’s needs.
I took clear inspiration from automotive design, as I felt it helped contextualize the product; I wanted viewers to immediately think of Autev as almost a tiny car.
Early iterations focused on having the robotic arm mounted in a fixed position above the main form.
006
Autev
Based on the ideation and in conjunction with business development, we outlined some more specific design guidelines for Autev's form.
Symmetrical
To reduce production costs and simplify the form, it was decided that Autev should be symmetrical on both the X and Y axis.
Divided
In order to reduce the looming, monolithic nature of the form, we decided to split Autev into two distinct pieces; the battery, arm, and sensor casing, and the motor and drive unit casing.
Servicable
Autev's motor, battery, and wheels had to be easily accessible for servicing. This determined the parting lines in the injection molded plastic body, and in the CMF differences for the front motor casing.
Autev employs a deconstructed version of the Intel RealSense sensor suite, with left and right sensors for redundancies and added precision.
It navigates using purely computer vision, so it doesn't require bulky (and ugly) LiDAR sensors.
Autev has front and rear axle independent steering, allowing for a tight turning radius and added maneuverability in small spaces like parking lots.
007
Autev in Use
Autev is mainly aimed at corporate and government customers. As such, it was important to create a form that acted as a blank canvas, allowing businesses to modify Autev with livery that matched their branding.
One of our main pilot program sites, Seattle Tacoma International Airport, is shown here, with the livery in line with SEA’s branding guidelines.
We also envisioned a use case where large corporations, such as Google shown below, could employ an Autev fleet to serve their office employees—especially important as return to office mandates are on the rise.
All logos are used purely for visualization purposes, and belong to their respective copyright owners. Autev is not officially affiliated with any business or entity shown.
Me with a very early prototype of Autev's form, at the Seattle Auto Show. Thank you for reading!
